Recording and reproducing apparatus and method thereof

ABSTRACT

In a recording and reproducing apparatus and a recording and reproducing method for the recording and reproducing apparatus for recording and reproducing image information on a scene obtained through photographing, relative to a predetermined first recording medium and being capable of setting one or more chapters to each scene, a face recognizing process is executed for a photographed image based on the image information, an importance level of each chapter is set in accordance with a result of the face recognizing process for a very important person (VIP) set by a user, and each chapter having a relevant importance level among importance levels of respective chapters is selectively reproduced. A user can therefore find an object chapter and scene quickly and easily.

INCORPORATION BY REFERENCE

This application is a continuation of application Ser. No. 12/430,185,filed on Apr. 27, 2009, now pending, which claims the benefit ofJapanese Application No. JP 2008-130678 filed on May 19, 2008, in theJapanese Patent Office, the disclosures of which are incorporated hereinby reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a recording and reproducing apparatusand a recording and reproducing method, suitable for application to,e.g., a video camera.

In recent years, recording and reproducing apparatus are in widespreaduse which apparatus are compatible with randomly accessible recordingmedia such as a digital versatile disc (DVD), a semiconductor memory anda hard disc drive (HDD). Such recording and reproducing apparatus caneasily and quickly cue a photographed image recorded in a recordingmedium.

Of recording and reproducing apparatus of this type, for example, ageneral video camera manages generally video information of photographedimages in the unit of scene, and cues each scene by using managementinformation on each scene. A video camera of this type can set aplurality of chapters in one scene, and can cue each chapter.

A scene means a series of images recorded during a period from when auser depresses a record button to start photographing to when the userdepresses again the record button to stop photographing. The number ofscenes increases each time photographing is made upon depression of therecord button. The chapter means a delimiter of images in one scene.

A user of a video camera can know quickly the contents of each scene byreproducing image information recorded in the recording medium bysequentially cuing each chapter.

However, if the number of chapters set in a scene is large, a user ofthe video camera is required to repeat a cue operation as many times asthe number of chapters set in the scene, in order to confirm thecontents to the last scene. There arises therefore a problem of muchwork and long time.

JP-A-06-165009 discloses techniques of efficiently knowing the contentsof a scene by calculating a priority order of each frame from the typeof button manipulation during photographing, and reproducing a framehaving a higher priority order.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The capacity of a recording medium of a recent video camera is becominglarge so that a scene photographed in a long time duration can be storedin the recording medium or scenes photographed a plurality of times canbe stored in the recording medium. It is therefore difficult for a userto quickly find a target scene from a number of scenes recorded in therecording medium.

Some conventional recording and reproducing apparatus are equipped witha function of displaying a list of thumbnail images of scenes. However,this function displays only one thumbnail image per one scene so that auser feels difficult in some cases to know the whole contents of a scenephotographed in a long time duration from one thumbnail image. Further,after a lapse of long time after photographing, it is difficult for auser to remember the whole contents of a scene from one correspondingthumbnail image.

If a user cannot remember the contents of a scene even if the thumbnailimage is viewed, the user confirms the contents of the scene byreproducing the scene. If the contents of a long time scene is to beconfirmed, it becomes necessary to provide a function of confirmingquickly the whole contents of the scene by cuing each chapter. However,this function has not been proposed yet.

JP-A-06-165009 discloses techniques of calculating a priority order ofeach frame from the type of button manipulation during photographing,and when digest reproduction for knowing the contents of a scene is tobe performed, reproducing a frame having a higher priority order.According to the techniques, however, a priority degree cannot be set toa scene photographed without button manipulation by a user. It cannot besaid that the techniques are easy to use.

The present invention has been made in consideration of theabove-described issues, and provides a recording and reproducingapparatus and a recording and reproducing method allowing a user torapidly and easily find a target chapter or scene.

In order to settle these issues, the present invention provides arecording and reproducing apparatus capable of setting one or morechapters to each scene, comprising: a recording and reproducing unit forrecording and reproducing image information on the scene obtainedthrough photographing, relative to a predetermined first recordingmedium; a face recognizing execution unit for executing a facerecognizing process for a photographed image based on the imageinformation; an importance level setting unit for setting an importancelevel of each chapter in accordance with a result of the facerecognizing process for a very important person (VIP) set by a user; anda control unit for controlling the recording and reproducing unit so asto selectively reproduce each chapter having a relevant importancelevel, among importance levels of respective chapters.

Accordingly, the recording and reproducing apparatus of the presentinvention can selectively reproduce a particular chapter in accordancewith user settings, such as a chapter on which a VIP appears frequently.

The present invention provides further a recording and reproducingmethod for a recording and reproducing apparatus for recording andreproducing image information on a scene obtained through photographing,relative to a predetermined first recording medium and being capable ofsetting one or more chapters to each scene, the method comprising: afirst step of executing a face recognizing process for a photographedimage based on the image information; a second step of setting animportance level of each chapter in accordance with a result of the facerecognizing process for a VIP set by a user; and a third step ofselectively reproducing each chapter having a relevant importance level,among importance levels of respective chapters.

Accordingly, the recording and reproducing method of the presentinvention can selectively reproduce a particular chapter in accordancewith user settings, such as a chapter on which a VIP appears frequently.

According to the present invention, a user can therefore find an objectchapter and scene quickly and easily.

Other objects, features and advantages of the invention will becomeapparent from the following description of the embodiments of theinvention taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating the structure of a video cameraaccording to first and second embodiments.

FIG. 2 is a conceptual diagram illustrating an example of chaptermanagement information.

FIG. 3 is a conceptual diagram illustrating an example of facerecognizing management information.

FIG. 4 is a conceptual diagram illustrating an example of a photographedimage when face recognizing is made valid.

FIG. 5 is a flow chart illustrating the sequence of a photographed imagerecording process.

FIG. 6 is a flow chart illustrating the sequence of a chapter importancelevel setting process.

FIG. 7 is a brief diagrammatic view illustrating an example of thelayout of a VIP determining screen.

FIG. 8 is a flow chart illustrating the sequence of an importance leveldetermining process.

FIG. 9 is a table illustrating an example of the chapter arrangement ofan object scene and a chapter importance level set to each chapter.

FIG. 10 is a flow chart illustrating the sequence of a chapter selectingand reproducing process.

FIG. 11 is a brief diagrammatic view illustrating an example of thelayout of a chapter list screen.

FIG. 12 is a brief diagrammatic view illustrating an example of thelayout of a scene list screen.

FIG. 13 is a flow chart illustrating the sequence of a VIP settingprocess.

FIG. 14 is a brief diagrammatic view illustrating an example of a layoutof a pre-photographing VIP setting screen.

FIG. 15 is a brief diagrammatic view illustrating an example of thelayout of a VIP photographing screen.

DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described withreference to the accompanying drawings.

(1) First Embodiment (1-1) Structure of Recording and ReproducingApparatus

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 represents a video camera of theembodiment. The video camera 1 is a hybrid video camera equipped with aDVD drive (not shown) and a built-in hard disc drive 2. A DVD 3 to bemounted on the DVD drive includes a plurality of types such as DVD-R,DVD-RW, DVD-RAM, DVD+R, DVD+RW and HD (High Definition)-DVD. The type ofDVD 3 applicable to the video camera 1 is not specifically limited.

In the video camera 1, a user interface 4 is constituted of variousoperation buttons, a touch panel adhered to a screen of a display 6 tobe described later. In accordance with a user operation command inputfrom the user interface 4, a system controller 5 executes acorresponding control process to record a photographed image in the harddisc drive 2 and DVD 3 loaded in the DVD drive and to reproduce aphotographed image recorded in the hard disc drive 2 and DVD 3 anddisplay the reproduced image on the display 6.

The system controller 5 is actually a microcomputer constituted of acentral processing unit (CPU), an internal memory and the like. When arecord button in the user interface 4 is depressed after a record modeis selected upon operation of the user interface 4, the systemcontroller 5 drives an image sensor 7 constituted of a charge coupleddevice (CCD), complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) transistorsand the like.

An optical image of an object is converged by a lens 8 on an opticalreception plane of the image sensor 7. The image sensor 7photoelectrically converts the optical image, and sends an obtainedphotographed image signal to an analog/digital converter 9. Theanalog/digital converter 9 converts the analog photographed image signalinto a digital image signal, and sends the obtained digital informationto a compressor/decompressor (CODEC) 10.

CODEC 10 transfers the supplied image information to the display 6 via abus 11. The display 6 may be a liquid crystal display, an organic ELdisplay or the like, and displays a photographed image (through image)basing upon the supplied image information.

CODEC 10 encodes the supplied image information by a predeterminedcompression encoding method such as a Moving Picture Expert Group (MPEG)method, and stores the obtained encoded image information, and the imageinformation not subjected to encoding, in a random access memory (RAM)12 via the bus 11.

Under control of the system controller 5, the encoded image informationstored in RAM 12 is thereafter read by a hard disc drive controller 13or a DVD drive controller 14, and recorded in the hard disc drive 2 orDVD 3.

The image information stored in RAM 12 is read by a face recognizingexecution unit 15. The face recognizing execution unit 15 executes apredetermined face recognizing process for the photographed imagecorresponding to the image information, and supplies the recognitionresults to the hard disc drive controller 13 or DVD drive controller 14storing the encoded image information, as face recognizing managementinformation to be described later. In this manner, the face recognizingmanagement information is recorded in the hard disc drive 2 or DVD 3, incorrespondence with the encoded image information.

When a reproduction button of the user interface 4 is depressed after areproduction mode is selected upon operation of the user interface 4,the system controller 5 controls a corresponding one of the hard discdrive controller 13 and DVD drive controller 14 to make the hard discdrive controller 13 or DVD drive controller 14 read and transmit theencoded image information to CODEC 10 via the bus 11.

Under control of the system controller 5, CODEC 10 executes apredetermined decoding process for the encoded image informationsupplied from the hard disc drive controller 13 or DVD drive controller14, and transmits the obtained reproduced image information to thedisplay 6 via the bus 11. In this manner, a reproduced imagecorresponding reproduced image information is displayed on the display6.

An image size converter 16 is also connected to the bus 11. Undercontrol of the system controller 5, the image size converter 16 extractsimage information on a start frame of each scene and image informationon a start frame of each chapter, from the image information stored inRAM 12 and image information read from the hard disk drive 2 or DVD 3and decoded by CODEC 10, for example, during photographing. The imagesize converter 16 converts the extracted image information into imageinformation on thumbnail images of predetermined sizes, and stores theimage information on the thumbnail images of a start frame of the sceneand a start frame of each chapter in the hard disc drive 2 or DVD 3storing the encoded image information on the scene, in correspondencewith the scene.

It is assumed that the video camera 1 has other hardware and functionsof a general video camera, such as light emitting diodes (LED's) forturning on during power-on, charging, access to the hard disc drive 2 orDVD 3, or the like, and batteries for supplying power to each circuit orthe like.

In the following description, it is assumed that a photographed image isrecorded in the hard disc drive 2 during photographing, and thephotographed image is dubbed in DVD 3 after photographing. However, aphotographed image may be recorded in DVD 3 during photographing, andthe photographed image is dubbed in the hard disc drive 2 afterphotographing.

(1-2) Scene Management Information

During photographing with the video camera 1, encoded image informationas well as management information of each scene (hereinafter calledscene management information) is recorded in the hard disc drive 2. Thescene management information is constituted of information for managinga scene such as chapter management information and face recognizingmanagement information. The chapter management information includesinformation on a position, length, importance level, summary and thelike of a start frame of each chapter. The face recognizing managementinformation includes information on a position of a frame on which aface recognized by the face recognizing execution unit appears duringphotographing, an expression and size of the face on the frame, and thelike.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example of the chapter management information. Thechapter management information 20 illustrated in FIG. 2 is constitutedof chapter ID information 21, start frame position information 22 andchapter importance level information 23, respectively of each chapterset in a scene.

The chapter ID information 21 is information representative of a uniqueID given to each chapter (hereinafter called a chapter ID), and thestart frame position information 22 is information representative of aposition (hour, minute, second and frame number) of a start frame of thecorresponding chapter. The chapter importance level information 23 isinformation representative of an importance level set to thecorresponding chapter (herein after called a chapter importance level).The details of the chapter importance level will be described later.Under control of the system controller 5, the chapter managementinformation 20 is stored in the hard disc drive 2 in correspondence withthe encoded image information of the scene.

FIG. 3 illustrates an example of the face recognizing managementinformation. The face recognizing management information 24 illustratedin FIG. 3 is constituted of face ID information 25 for each facerecognized in the corresponding scene, path/file name information 26 andframe position information 27.

The face ID information 25 is information representative of a unique IDgiven to each face recognized by the face recognizing execution unit 15(hereinafter called a face ID), and the path/file name information 26 isinformation representative of a path to the image file of an image of acorresponding face (hereinafter called a face image) or a file name ofthe image file. A face image to be stored in the image file may be animage captured when the person is recognized first in a frame, or animage capturing the best expression of the person in the scene afterdistinguishing a good expression such as smile during the facerecognizing process.

The frame position information 27 is information representative of aframe position (hour, minute, second and frame number) where acorresponding face is recognized. The frame position information 27includes all frame positions on which a corresponding face appears.Therefore, the number of frame positions contained in the frame positioninformation 27 becomes larger the larger the number of times when theface (person) appears on the scene. A type of a face expression in aframe may be recorded in correspondence with each frame position.

As described above, the face recognizing execution unit 15 stores theface recognizing management information 24 in the hard disc drive 2 incorrespondence with the encoded image information of a photographedimage recorded at that time.

(1-3) Chapter Importance Level Setting Method

FIG. 4 illustrates an example of an image photographed by setting a facerecognizing function “valid” and displayed on the display 6. As the facerecognizing function of the video camera 1 is set “valid”, a rectangularframe 31 is displayed in a photographed image 30 displayed on thedisplay 6, surrounding a face of a person detected by the facerecognizing function. As the face recognizing function is set “invalid”,this frame 31 is not displayed.

FIG. 5 illustrates the contents of a process (hereinafter called aphotographed image recording process) of recording an image photographedby setting the face recognizing function “valid” in the hard disc drive2, to be executed by the system controller 5. The system controller 5executes the photographed image recording process illustrated in FIG. 5in accordance with a corresponding control program stored in theinternal memory.

More specifically, as the record button of the user interface 4 isdepressed after the record mode is selected, the system controller 5starts the photographed image recording process. First, theanalog/digital converter 9 and CODEC 10 are controlled to store imageinformation of the photographed image and encoded image information inRAM 12, and the hard disc drive controller 13 is controlled to read theencoded image information of one frame from RAM 12 and store the readencoded image information in the hard disc drive 2 (Step SP1).

Next, the system controller 5 controls the face recognizing executionunit 15 to read from RAM 12 the image information of the same frame asthe frame whose encoded image information was read from RAM 12 by thehard disc drive controller 13 at Step SP1 and execute the facerecognizing process for the photographed image corresponding to theimage information (Step SP2).

In this case, for example, the face recognizing execution unit 15executes the face recognizing process by template matching, for example,using an average face. However, if a user forms a VIP list registeringVIP's before photographing, the face recognizing process may be executedby template matching using the VIP list. After the face recognizingprocess is completed, the face recognizing execution unit 15 reflectsthe results of the face recognizing process upon the face recognizingmanagement information described with reference to FIG. 3 (updating theface recognizing management information).

Next, the system controller 5 judges whether encoded image informationof all frames obtained through photographing has been recorded in thehard disc drive 2 (Step SP3). If this judgment is negated, the flowreturns to step SP1, and the system controller 5 repeats similarprocesses (SP1 to SP3, to SP1).

If the judgment is affirmed at Step SP3 after the encoded imageinformation of all frames obtained through photographing is recorded inthe hard disc drive 2, the system controller 5 terminates thephotographed image recording process.

The face recognizing process at Step SP2 of the photographed imagerecording process may be executed for each frame as described above, ormay be executed once for several frames. As the face recognizing processis executed once for several frames, a process load on the facerecognizing execution unit 15 can be reduced.

A function (hereinafter called a post-photographing face recognizingfunction) may be provided allowing a face recognizing process to beexecuted for an image already photographed by setting the facerecognizing function “invalid”, through operation of a menu or the like.The face recognizing management process similar to that illustrated inFIG. 3 can be obtained by this function. With this post-photographingface recognizing function, a chapter importance level can be set usingthe face recognizing function as will be described later, even for ascene photographed with another video camera without the facerecognizing function. This is very convenient for a user.

Next, description will be made on a method of determining an importancelevel of each chapter in one scene in accordance with the results (facerecognizing management information 24 (FIG. 3)) of the face recognizingprocess obtained in the manner described above.

It is assumed in the following that at least one chapter is set in eachscene. A chapter forming method includes a method of making a usermanually determine the position of each chapter, a method ofautomatically setting the position of each chapter where a luminancechange is large in the scene, a method of automatically setting chaptersat equal pitch of several minutes to several ten minutes, and othermethods. In this embodiment, a chapter may be set by any one of thesemethods.

FIG. 6 illustrates the process contents of the system controller 5regarding a chapter importance level setting function of setting animportance level of each chapter in a scene. As the user interface 4 isoperated and a first screen display request is input, the systemcontroller 5 executes a chapter importance level setting processillustrated in FIG. 6, in accordance with a corresponding program storedin the internal memory (not shown).

More specifically, upon input of the first screen display request, thesystem controller 5 reads first the chapter management information 20(FIG. 2) and face recognizing management information 24 (FIG. 3), storedin the hard disc drive 2, of a scene to be processed at that time(hereinafter called an object scene), and displays a VIP deciding screen40 illustrated in FIG. 7 on the display 6, by using the chaptermanagement information 20 and face recognizing management information 24(Step SP10).

The VIP deciding screen 40 is a screen to be used for a user to decide aVIP in the object scene. The VIP deciding screen 40 displays face images41 of all persons recognized during photographing the object scene. Eachface image 41 is displayed in accordance with image data read from theimage file identified by a corresponding path/file name information 26(FIG. 3) in the face recognizing management information 24 describedwith reference to FIG. 3.

A user can select a VIP from the face images 41 of persons displayed onthe VIP deciding screen 40. A plurality of VIP's may be selected. Facesof objects having a high appearance frequency such as family members maybe registered beforehand in the video camera 1 as a VIP list, and thefaces of only the registered persons are displayed on the VIP decidingscreen 40. In this manner, since the face of a person not associatedwith the object and photographed in the background is not displayed, itbecomes easy for a user to decide a VIP.

After the face image 41 of the person desired to be set as a VIP isselected by a predetermined operation, the user depresses a “decide”button 42 to register the selected person as a VIP. If an operation ofdeciding the chapter importance level is desired to be terminated, a“cancel” button 43 is depressed. If it is arranged in such a manner thata user can set whether such a VIP list is always used or not,user-friendliness of the video camera 1 can be improved.

Next, the system controller 5 stands by until a VIP is decided using theVIP deciding screen 40 (Step SP11). As the user decides a VIP, animportance level of each chapter of the object scene is determined inaccordance with the decided VIP (Step SP12).

The system controller 5 reflects the importance level of each chapterdecided at Step SP12 upon the chapter management information 20described with reference to FIG. 2 (Step SP13), to thereafter terminatethe chapter importance level setting process.

FIG. 8 illustrates the specific process contents of the systemcontroller 5 in the chapter importance level setting process at StepSP12.

In the chapter importance level setting process at Step SP12, the systemcontroller 5 starts the importance level setting process. First, thenumber of appearance frequencies of the VIP decided by the user usingthe VIP deciding screen 40 (FIG. 7) is counted for each chapter of theobject scene (Step SP14).

More specifically, the system controller 5 prepares counterscorresponding in number to the number of chapters in the scene, on theinner memory of the system. The system controller 5 reads the positionsof all frames on which the VIP decided by the user using the VIPdeciding screen 40 appears, from the face recognizing managementinformation 24 (FIG. 3), by using a face ID of the VIP, and judges towhich chapter each frame belongs, by referring to the chapter managementinformation 20 (FIG. 2). In accordance with the judgment results, thesystem controller 5 increments by “1” the count of the countercorresponding to the chapter to which the frame belongs, for each frameon which the VIP appears. The system controller 5 executes theseprocesses for all VIP's decided by the user using the VIP decidingscreen 40.

Next, the system controller 5 normalizes the counts of the counters in arange from “1” to “5” (Step SP15), and decides a value obtained bysubtracting each normalized value from “6”, as an importance level ofeach chapter corresponding to the counter (Step SP16).

With these processes, the highest chapter importance level of “1” is setto the chapter on which the VIP appears most frequently, and the lowestchapter importance level of “5” is set to the chapter on which the VIPappears least frequently. Thereafter, the system controller 5 terminatesthis importance level deciding process and returns to the chapterimportance level setting process.

If a user selects a plurality of VIP's on the VIP deciding screen 40,the chapter importance levels may be weighted to allow the user to setmore important persons. User-friendliness of the video camera 1 cantherefore be improved further.

(1-4) Reproducing Method Using Chapter Importance Level

Next, description will be made on an object scene reproducing methodbasing upon the chapter importance level of each chapter set in themanner described above. It is assumed in the following description thatthe chapter importance level is set in five steps, “1” being the highestchapter importance level, and “5” being the lowest chapter importancelevel. In the following, the chapter importance levels are distinguishedfor the purposes of convenience by calling the chapter importance level“1” superexpress, the chapter importance level “3” express, and thechapter importance level “5” standard.

FIG. 9 illustrates an example of the chapter structure of an objectscene and a chapter importance level set to each chapter. In the exampleillustrated in FIG. 9, the object scene is divided into nine chaptershaving chapter ID's of “001” to “009”. The chapter importance level “1”is set to two chapters having the chapter ID's “002” and “005”, thechapter importance level “3” is set to two chapters having the chapterID's “004” and “009”, and the chapter importance level “5” is set to theremaining chapters having the chapter ID's “001”, “003”, “006” to “008”.

In this example, as reproduction is performed by selecting as areproducing mode a “standard reproducing mode” from the menu, allchapters are sequentially reproduced in an order of smaller chapter ID,irrespective of the chapter importance level set to each chapter.Namely, in the “standard reproducing mode”, the chapters having thechapter importance level “5” or smaller (the chapters having the chapterimportance levels “1” to “5”, i.e., all chapters) are reproduced in thismode of the embodiment.

Further, as a user starts reproducing by selecting as the reproducingmode an “express reproducing mode”, the video camera 1 reproduces firstthe chapter having the chapter importance level “1” and chapter ID“002”, then the chapter having the chapter importance level “3” and thechapter ID “004”, and next the chapter having the chapter importancelevel “1” and the chapter ID “005”. Lastly, the video camera 1reproduces the chapter having the importance level 3 and the chapter ID“009” to thereafter terminate scene reproducing. Namely, in the expressreproducing mode”, only the chapters having the chapter importance level“3” or smaller (only the chapters having the importance levels “1” to“3”) are reproduced. Therefore, as cue skipping is performed duringreproducing in the “express reproducing mode”, reproducing starts fromthe start frame of the next chapter having the chapter importance level“3” or smaller.

Furthermore, as a user starts reproducing by selecting as thereproducing mode a “superexpress reproducing mode”, the video camera 1reproduces first the chapter having the chapter importance level “1” andchapter ID “002”, then the chapter having the chapter importance level“1” and the chapter ID “005” to thereafter terminate scene reproducing.Namely, in the “super express reproducing mode”, only the chaptershaving the chapter importance level “1” are reproduced.

Therefore, the video camera 1 reproduces always the chapter having thechapter importance level “1” as any of the reproducing modes isselected, and each of other chapters is reproduced only when thereproducing mode is selected reproducing the chapter having the chapterimportance level same as or smaller than that set to each of otherchapters.

By utilizing this function (hereinafter called a chapter selectreproducing function), the superexpress reproducing mode is used forconfirming roughly the contents of the object scene, and at the stagewhen reproducing comes near the images whose contents are desired to beconfirmed in detail, the reproducing mode is switched to the standardreproducing mode. In this manner, the contents of the object scene canbe confirmed efficiently and conveniently. The superexpress reproducingmode is very convenient for a user desiring to confirm the contents of ascene in short time.

FIG. 10 illustrates the process contents of the system controller 5regarding the chapter select reproducing function. The system controller5 executes the chapter select reproducing process illustrated in FIG. 10in accordance with a control program stored in the internal memory.

Namely, as a reproducing operation start command is input after the“standard reproducing mode”, “express reproducing mode” or “superexpressreproducing mode” is selected, the system controller 5 starts thechapter select reproducing process to first read the chapter managementinformation of the object scene from a corresponding hard disc drive 2or DVD 3 (Step SP20).

Next, in accordance with the ID information contained in the chaptermanagement information, the system controller 5 selects the firstchapter (e.g., the chapter having the smallest chapter ID) (Step SP21),and judges whether the chapter importance level of the chapter is apredetermined threshold value or smaller set to the present reproducingmode (Step SP22). The threshold value is “5” if the “standardreproducing mode” is set, “3” if the “express reproducing mode” is set,and “1” if the “superexpress reproducing mode” is set.

If a judgment at Step SP22 is negated, the flow advances to Step S24,whereas if the judgment is affirmed, the system controller 5 controlsCODEC 10 to reproduce the chapter and display the reproduced image onthe display (Step SP23).

Next, the system controller 5 refers to the chapter managementinformation to judge whether the chapter next to the chapter selected atStep SP21 exists (Step SP24). If this judgment is affirmed, the flowreturns to Step SP21 to repeat similar processes by sequentiallyswitching the chapter to be selected at Step SP21 (Steps SP21 to SP24,to SP21).

As the processes at Steps SP21 to SP24 are completed for all chaptersand the judgment at Step SP24 is negated, the system controller 5terminates the chapter select reproducing process.

Next, description will be made on an approach to making a user to easilyconfirm the chapter importance level set to each chapter in a scene.

FIG. 11 illustrates a chapter list screen 50 displayed on the display 6by a user menu operation. For each chapter of an object scene, athumbnail image 51 set to the chapter, and chapter managementinformation 52 such as a lapse time from the scene start, a chapterimportance level and the like, are displayed on the chapter list screen50.

More practically, when a display command for the chapter list screen 50is input by operating the user interface 4, the system controller 5controls a corresponding hard disc drive controller 13 or DVD drivecontroller 14 to read from the hard disc drive 2 or DVD 3 the chaptermanagement information 20 (FIG. 2) of the object scene, and the imageinformation on the thumbnail image 51 of the start frame of each chapterstored in correspondence with the object scene. Then, the systemcontroller 5 operates to display the thumbnail image 51of the startframe of each chapter on the chapter list screen 50 in accordance withthe read image information, and display the management information 52 ofeach chapter based on the chapter management information 20, on thechapter list screen 50, in correspondence with the thumbnail image 51.

In this manner, a user can know the chapter having a high chapterimportance level from the chapter list screen 50, and can find animportant image quickly.

Next, description will be made on an approach to making a user easilyconfirm a scene set with a chapter importance level.

FIG. 12 illustrates a scene list screen displayed on the display by auser menu operation. A thumbnail image 54 of each scene stored in thehard disc drive 2 or DVD 3 is displayed on the scene list screen 53.

More practically, when a display command for the scene list screen 53 isinput by operating the user interface 4, the system controller 5controls a corresponding hard disc drive controller 13 or DVD drivecontroller 14 to read from the hard disc drive 2 or DVD 3 the imageinformation on the thumbnail image 54 of the start frame of every scenestored in the hard disc drive 2 or DVD 3 designated by the user. Then,the system controller 5 operates to display the thumbnail image 54 ofthe start frame of each scene on the scene list screen 53, in accordancewith the read image information.

In this case, the system controller 5 refers to the chapter managementinformation 20 (FIG. 2) of each scene, and displays an icon 55 having apredetermined shape on the thumbnail image 54 of the scene set with thechapter importance level.

It is therefore possible for a user to judge from the icon 55 whether achapter importance level is set to the scene for example, to bereproduced. The contents of the scene displayed with the icon 55 can beconfirmed efficiently by immediately performing a reproducing operationby the reproducing method using the chapter importance level asdescribed above. For the scene not displayed with the icon, the chapterimportance level setting process is executed before the reproductionoperation so that the reproducing operation by the above-describedreproducing method can be performed.

(1-5) Scene Dubbing Process

Next, description will be made on a process of dubbing encoded imageinformation recorded in the hard disc drive 2 into DVD 3.

When the scene set with the chapter importance level is dubbed from thehard disc drive 2 into DVD 3 in the video camera 1, the systemcontroller 5 copies not only the encoded image information and scenemanagement information (chapter management information 20 (FIG. 2) andface recognizing management information 24 (FIG. 3) but also an imagefile of face images of faces registered in the face recognizingmanagement information 24 contained in the scene management information,into DVD 3. Therefore, even if the encoded information in the hard discdrive 2 is erased, reproducing using a chapter importance level andre-setting a chapter importance level can be performed immediately.

(1-6) Effects of the Embodiment

According to the video camera of the embodiment described above, thechapter importance level of each chapter can be set basing upon theresults of the face recognizing process executed during photographing.It is therefore possible for a user to quickly find a chapter on whichan object person (VIP) appears frequently. Further, a chapter having arelevant chapter importance level is selectively reproduced, amongchapter importance levels of respective chapters, so that a user canconfirm the whole contents of the scene easily and in short time and canfind an object scene quickly. In this manner, user-friendliness of thevideo camera 1 can be improved considerably.

(2) Second Embodiment

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 60 represents a video camera of the secondembodiment. The video camera 60 of the second embodiment is configuredlike the video camera 1 of the first embodiment, excepting that thechapter importance level setting method is different from that of thefirst embodiment.

Namely, in the first embodiment, a user decides a VIP by using the VIPdeciding screen 40 (FIG. 7) after photographing, and in accordance withthe decision, a chapter importance level of each chapter is set. Incontrast, in the second embodiment, the face recognizing process isexecuted only for a VIP decided by a user before photographing, and inaccordance with the results of the face recognizing process, a chapterimportance level of each chapter is set.

FIG. 13 illustrates the process contents of the system controllerregarding a VIP setting process for a user to set a VIP beforephotographing, in the chapter importance setting method of the secondembodiment. The system controller 61 executes the VIP setting process inaccordance with a control program stored in the inner memory (notshown).

Namely, when a VIP setting mode is selected by operating the userinterface 4, the system controller 61 starts the VIP setting process tofirst display a pre-photographing VIP setting screen 70 illustrated inFIG. 14 on the display 6 (Step SP30).

Next, the system controller 61 stands by until one of first and secondVIP deciding method select buttons 71 and 72 displayed on thepre-photographing VIP setting screen 70 (Step SP31) is depressed. Thefirst VIP deciding method select button 71 is a button corresponding toa mode of preparing for photographing a VIP, and the second VIP decidingmethod select button 72 is a button corresponding to a mode of decidinga VIP among persons recognized during photographing already performed,similar to the first embodiment.

As one of the first and second VIP deciding method select buttons 71 and72 is depressed, the system controller 61 judges whether the depressedbutton is the first VIP deciding method select button 71 (Step SP32).

As this judgment is affirmed, the system controller 61 drives the imagesensor 7, analog/digital converter 9 and CODEC 10 to display an imageillustrated in FIG. 15 and photographed at that time by a user, on thedisplay 6 (Step SP34). In this case, the user photographs a VIP to beregistered with the video camera 60.

Next, during photographing a VIP, the system controller 61 drives theface recognizing execution unit 15 to execute the face recognizingprocess for the VIP under photographing (Step SP35). After completion ofthe face recognizing process, the system controller 61 makes the facerecognizing execution unit 15 form the face recognizing managementinformation 24 (FIG. 3) based upon the face recognizing process results,and store this information in the hard disc drive 2 (Step SP38).Thereafter, the system controller 61 terminates the VIP setting process.

If the judgment at Step SP32 is negated (i.e., if the second VIPdeciding method select button 72 is depressed), the system controller 61displays the VIP display screen 40 described with reference to FIG. 7 onthe display 6 (Step SP36).

Next, the system controller 61 stands by until a VIP is selected fromthe VIP display screen 40 (Step SP37). As a VIP is selected, the facerecognizing execution unit 15 is instructed to form the face recognizingmanagement information 24 illustrated in FIG. 3 registering onlyinformation on the selected VIP (Step SP38). Thereafter, the systemcontroller 61 terminates the VIP setting process.

With this arrangement, the system controller 61 controls the facerecognizing execution unit 15 to reflect only the results of the facerecognizing process for the VIP registered in the manner describedabove, upon the face recognizing management information 24 (FIG. 3),during photographing. Each time scene photographing is completed, theimportance level setting process described with reference to FIG. 8 isexecuted to determine a chapter importance level of each chapter set inthe scene, and in accordance with the determined chapter importancelevel, the chapter management information 20 (FIG. 2) is updated.

As described above, the video camera 60 of the embodiment executes theface recognizing process only for a VIP decided before moving imagephotographing, and in accordance with the results of the facerecognizing process, a chapter importance level of each chapter is set.It is therefore possible to facilitate setting of the chapter importancelevel of each chapter. Further, since the video camera 60 registers aVIP in advance as described above, it is possible to avoid the followingphenomenon. Namely, in performing autofocus and autoexposure utilizingface recognition, if the face of another person photographed togetherwith a VIP is recognized by chance, the optimum focus and exposure areset to this other person, and the object VIP is not photographed well.

(3) Other Embodiments

In the first and second embodiments, the present invention is applied tothe video camera 1, 60 configured as illustrated in FIG. 1. The presentinvention is not limited thereto, but is also applicable to videocameras having various structures, apparatus other than video camerassuch as DVD recorders, electronic still cameras and mobile phonesprovided with a moving image photographing function.

Further, in the first and second embodiments, although the hard discdrive 2 and DVD 3 are adopted as recording media for recordingphotographed images, the present invention is not limited thereto, butrecording media other than the DVD and hard disc drive may also beadopted including a Blu-ray disc (BD), a compact disc (CD), a mini disc(MD), a semiconductor memory and the like.

Furthermore, in the first and second embodiments, although the hard discdrive 2 and a DVD drive as the recording/reproducing unit for recordingand reproducing image information on photographed scenes relative torecording media are built in the video camera 1, 60, the presentinvention is not limited thereto, but may adopt an external mount typedrive connected by USB (Universal Serial Bus), eSATA (External SerialAdvanced Technology Attachment) and the like as the recording andreproducing unit.

Still further, in the first and second embodiments, although one systemcontroller 5, 61 is constituted of: an importance level setting unit forsetting a chapter importance level of each chapter in accordance withthe results of a face recognizing process for a VIP set by a user; acontroller for controlling the hard disc drive 2 and DVD drive so as toselectively reproduce a chapter having a relevant importance level,among importance levels of respective chapters; and a VIP setting unitfor setting as a VIP a person corresponding to a face image selected bya user from a list of face images displayed on the display, the presentinvention is not limited thereto, but the importance level setting unit,control unit and VIP setting unit may be structured discretely.

The present invention is widely applicable to various recording andreproducing apparatus such ad DVD recorders in addition to videocameras.

The preferred embodiments of the present invention have been describedabove. According to the present invention, a particular chapter can beselectively reproduced in accordance with user settings so that a usercan find quickly a chapter on which a desired person appears. Further,since a particular chapter based on user settings can be selectivelyreproduced, a user can know the whole contents of a scene in short timeand easily.

It should be further understood by those skilled in the art thatalthough the foregoing description has been made on embodiments of theinvention, the invention is not limited thereto and various changes andmodifications may be made without departing from the spirit of theinvention and the scope of the appended claims.

1. A recording and reproducing apparatus comprising: an imaging modulefor capturing image data on each scene, a recording unit for recordingsaid captured image data into a recording medium, a face recognizingexecution unit for executing a face recognizing process on said capturedimage data before recording into said recording medium, a reproducingunit for reproducing said image data from said recording medium; adisplay unit for displaying a list of face thumbnail images of personsregistered beforehand by a user based upon said image data captured bysaid imaging module and executed by said face recognizing process, bysaid face recognizing unit in a person registering mode in which aperson image is captured and registered; a specific person setting unitfor setting as a specific person, a person corresponding to a facethumbnail image selected by a user from said displayed list of facethumbnail images; an importance level setting unit for setting animportance level of said recorded image data which include said specificperson set by the specific person setting unit; and a control unit forcontrolling said reproducing unit so as to selectively reproduce saidrecorded image data which include said specific person based upon animportance level which set by said importance level setting unit.